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- Sjögren, Fredrik
(författare)
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Den förhandlade makten : Kulturella värdekonflikter i den svenska skolan
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation argues that, in order to understand how teachers in compulsory Swedish schools deal with what they regard to be cultural value conflicts, an important aspect is negotiations about d... merefinitions between teachers, pupils and parents, this directing focus towards power relations in the actual schools rather than formal decision making procedures. The aim is to elaborate a theory on the foundation of power theories that provides an understanding of the negotiation process and its effects in relation to cultural value conflicts. In relation to the four faces of power (decision making, agenda setting, preference shaping, and Foucauldian power analytics) the dissertation views the first three aspects as the force that makes the negotiation come about. For analyzing the actual power structure of the negotiation as well as the effects of the negotiation, it relies on a Foucauldian perspective. The dissertation views the process when the definitions come about as a framing process, but connected to a Foucauldian perspective rather than an agenda setting perspective. It therefore focuses on normalization and disciplinarian processes. The dissertation identifies five different frames in earlier research: individual sphere, public sphere, religious sphere, sexuality and gender sphere, and science sphere. It is argued that those spheres are abstract entities that provide particularities with a meaning by including them in existing story lines. By doing so, they also provide possible solutions, point out individuals or groups as authorities, and decide the hierarchy of ethical and normative goals. It is further argued that, in order to understand the negotiation, insights into the overall context of Swedish schools are important, and especially the structures vertical autonomy (the teacher's dependence on the state), horizontal autonomy (the teacher's dependence on parents and pupils), teacher role, and ideas about cultural diversity and ethnicity. Long semi structured interviews have been made with a total of 39 teachers from four different schools. Three different types of questions are studied: societal value questions (as democratic values and opinions on sexuality), knowledge questions and questions about pupils´ behaviour in classroom. The findings show that there is no hegemonic discourse in Swedish schools regarding the issues studied; similar questions are frequently framed differently by different teachers and on different schools. The findings of the empirical study further indicate that many negotiations ends up with the individual frame (this is the case for all three different types of questions). It is argued that this individualization reduces potential conflicts and is therefore preferred when the actors want to connect a question to different speheres. It is also argued that the results of the framing depends on power relations: if there is a societal consensus about a phenomenon (e.g. democracy), teachers are more reluctant to frame it as an individual question. If there is no such consensus (e.g. opinions on homosexuality) the teachers are more prone to direct it to the individual sphere.
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| 2. |
- Stensöta, Helena, 1965
(författare)
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Den empatiska staten: Jämställdhetens inverkan på daghem och polis 1950-2000
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Abstract Stensöta, H. The empathetic State. The impact of equality between men and women on kindergarten and police 19502000. (Swedish Title: DEN EMPATISKA STATEN. Jämställdhetens inverkan på daghem och polis 1950─2000). Swedish text. English summary. Göteborg Studies in Politics 85. 256 sidor. ISBN-nr 91-89246-10-1, ISSN-nr 0346-5942. The dissertation departs from the growing tendency of men and women to engage in care taking of their children while simultaneously being successfully employed. The main empirical question penetrated is if this growing tendency results in an increased care-orientation in societal norms in the society as a whole. This question is framed as a question of how the character of the state changes with changed power conditions between societal groups, in this case between men and women. Departuring from previous feminist research, such as Carol Gilligan, a theoretical model is developed to account for how experiences of physical care-for dependants among women and men results in changes in personal moral convictions. It is presented as a possible way to deal with questions of care-norms without connecting them more to women than to men. On the societal level it is assumed that a normative change in this direction can be manifested as an increased of care-orientation of how public sector employees in general are supposed to encounter with the public. The thesis is investigated through a case-oriented analysis focusing on central steering documents for Kindergarten and the Police. The findings show that there is reason to talk about a change of state-character regarding Kindergarten and the emergence of an empathetic state. Concerning the Police there has been an increased care-orientation in policy intentions, but not all questions lifted forward in the analysis could be answered positively. This leads to the conclusion that the development cannot be connected to changes in living patterns between men and women, such as in the Kindergarten case.
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Klas, 1975
(författare)
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Deliberativ undervisning – en empirisk studie
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the early 2000s, the deliberative turn in democratic theory has influenced the debate on teaching. The proponents of deliberation in education have argued that deliberative teaching both enhances subject knowledge and democratic citizenship among students. In Sweden, both policymakers and scholars have argued for more deliberative teaching in the Swedish education system. However, there is little empirical support for the assumption that deliberative teaching enhances knowledge and democratic citizenship among students. The aim of the thesis is to empirically test this assumption. The study consists of four field experiments where deliberative teaching is carried out in a Swedish upper secondary school civic course, Samhällskunskap A. In the field experiments the theoretical ideal of deliberative teaching is put into practice. Field experiments are conducted in three different upper secondary school programs, one preparing for ensuing studies and two so-called vocational programs (one female-dominated and one male-dominated). The study also includes a field experiment in an adult education program. The four field experiments are carried out in the same way using two classes in the same school, one with deliberative and one with non-deliberative teaching. After the course the students’ knowledge and democratic values are compared. A total of 274 students and 9 teachers participated in the field experiments. The results can be summarized as follows: Deliberative teaching is sometimes more but never less productive compared to the alternative non-deliberative teaching. The results show that students in vocational programs in the upper secondary school seem to be the ones most favoured by deliberative teaching. Students in vocational programs that participated in deliberative teaching increased their knowledge, thoughtful opinions, political efficacy, readiness for political participation and conversation skills more than students that had non-deliberative teaching. No such effects are present among students in the program preparing for ensuing studies. The results show that there is potential in deliberative teaching but the results does not support the assumption made in the theoretical deliberative teaching literature assuming a general positive effect of deliberative teaching on knowledge and democratic values among all students.
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| 7. |
- Bendz, Anna, 1967
(författare)
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I välfärdsstatens hägn: Autonomi inom arbetslöshetsförsäkringen : Under the Welfare State Umbrella. Autonomy within the Unem-ployment Insurance
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The point of departure of this dissertation is the general question of how to combine normative political philosophy with empirical analysis, the argument being that concepts from the political philosophy can and shall be used for the construction of theoretically and empirically relevant research questions. The core concept in the dissertation, which is also the object of the empirical analysis, is autonomy. The empirical analysis answers the question of what consequences for individual autonomy follows from the design of unemployment insurance institutions. The empirical study focuses on policy choices taken in Sweden and Norway concerning the reformation of the unemployment insurances between the 1930s and 1990s. The design of the study is a comparative case study, the point of departure being that Sweden and Norway are social-democratic welfare states which are similar in many ways but have chosen different kinds of unemployment insurance institutions. The theoretical model used in the dissertation is derived from institutional theory. The hypothesis is that the difference in unemployment insurance systems should mean that the political actors should face different situations when making decisions about the rules of the unemployment insurance, which in turn means that the outcome when it comes to individual autonomy should be different. Since the countries have had the same institutions since the 1930s, another hypothesis is that the policy decisions regarding the rules affecting autonomy should be relatively stable over time. This hypothesis is derived from the historical-institutionalist theory of path dependency. The result of the empirical study shows that there are some differences between the two cases when it comes to autonomy and that it is possible to argue that these differences can be attributed to the institutional systems. But the conclusion is not unanimous since there are also some similarities in the autonomy outcome, and a conclusion therefore also is that in some instances, the differences in unemployment insurance institutions are not significant for the political actors when they make policy decisions. The empirical study also shows that the path dependency hypothesis gains support in the Norwegian case, but not to the full in the Swedish case. The differences between the two cases decrease over time, mainly due to changes in the Swedish unemployment insurance. A general conclusion in the thesis is that the design of political institutions not only is of importance for political decision-making and public policy, but also for the normative character of the state.
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- Bergman, Elin
(författare)
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Clientelism, conditional cash transfers, and cross-class coalitions: why governments expand pro-poor redistribution.
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) allow poor households and individuals access to income support in return for investments in health and education. Originally adopted in Brazil and Mexico in the late 1990s, CCTs are now present in developing countries across the world. The adoption of a targeted benefit for poor people represents a radical reshaping of social policy in places such as the Latin American and Caribbean where the poor were long excluded from the welfare state. The poor were also frequent targets of clientelism: the contingent exchange between politicians and voters of material benefits in return for the promise of political support. It appears puzzling that politicians in these places should adopt a social policy that undermines their ability to continue to use clientelism in an effort to win elections. This puzzle is at the heart of the dissertation, and prompts the question of why governments adopt CCTs? The theory of the dissertation provides a solution to this puzzle and answers the question by emphasizing that it is precisely the undermining effect of CCTs on clientelism that makes CCTs attractive to politicians who seek the support of not only the poor but also that of the upscale electorate. CCTs are a functional response to the demands for redistribution among the poor (the bottom one-third of the income distribution) and the demand for a low level of redistribution and improvements in the productivity of the low-skill labor force among the upscale electorate (the top one-third of the income distribution). By throwing their electoral weight behind politicians who pursue CCTs, upscale voters can expect a reduction in the use of clientelism. Upscale voters dislike clientelism since it is secret, often illegal, and of unknown volume, which makes it difficult to infer tax rates. In addition, clientelism ties benefits to political allegiance rather than the human capital improvements that would end poor dependency on handouts. The theory is tested through a mixed-methods research design that combines experimental and observational data. Chapter 4 presents results from an original survey experiment that show that upscale support for CCTs grows when clientelism is an increasingly large concern, and that the preferences of the upscale and poor coalesce in contexts of high clientelism concern: the emergence of a cross-class coalition of upscale and poor voters. Chapter 5 examines in-depth the electoral coalitions in mayoral races across time in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and finds that the decision to adopt a local CCT in 2010 can be explained by the need to make inroads into the upscale electorate. Election results as well as survey data indicate large increases in upscale support after CCT adoption. The generalizability of the theory is tested in Chapter 6, which combines time-series cross-section data from Latin American and Caribbean countries during two decades with survey data from the region. The results conform to those of the subnational analyses and give strong support to the theory and its generalizability. Unlike existing theories, the dissertation provides an answer to why politicians expand pro-poor policy through CCTs. The literature has emphasized increased responsiveness to the poor in the wake of democratization but failed to explain why the poor in developing regions are politically effectual when their peers in the advanced economies are considered as a politically weak group with low efficacy. It is similarly left unexplained why CCTs cover such a small portion of the poor if the poor are the exclusive constituency of CCTs. The dissertation makes a key contribution to the literature by theorizing on how CCTs respond to redistributive preferences across the income distribution, and when those preferences may converge into a cross-coalition of voters in favor of pro-poor redistribution. It is important to understand the determinants of redistributive policy that targets the most vulnerable group in society. Previous research indicates that CCTs have reduced poverty and inequality since their inception in the final years of the 20th century. Beyond its contribution to the literature, then, the dissertation has relevance for the many individuals across the world who lack economic security and protection from adverse life and market events.
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